Towards a coupled heating-forming simulation of the thermoforming of thermoplastic composites

Abstract

Abstract.A strategy for the simulation of the whole thermoforming process, from the infrared heating to the stamping, is presented here. Two loosely coupled simulation tools are being developed: the first one computes a realistic 3D, transient temperature field of the composite stack inside an infrared oven, considering the radiative, conductive and convective heat transfers; the temperature distribution is used as an input for the second that aims at simulating the thermomechanical behaviour of the composite during the forming step via a non-orthogonal constitutive model. The steps for the identification of the model parameters are introduced. Initial validation tests show realistic results in term of shear angle distribution.

Effect of the cooling temperature of a PET sheet on the crystallinity and mould removal time for thermoforming applications

“…Regarding the numerical modelling of thermoforming, most of the work concerns the heating and forming stages. [1][2][3] Infrared heating followed by contact cooling with moulds does not seem well represented in the literature. As regards the modelling of the cooling step (the solidification of polymers), there are three different approaches.…”